Raw Gold

r hands down to their natural

rs-we're afoot, minus everything but cigarette material. It's a wonder they didn't take that, too. A damn good stroke of business, all right

Never a word of what it might mean to him; never even hinted that the high moguls at Fort Walsh were more than likely to put him on the rack for letting any such lawless work be carried out suc

he poor devil ly

one. "You always had a pretty good memory for face

oward the firelight to make sure. I recognized him instantly, and I knew that MacRae had no doubts o

hispered, and MacR

involuntarily, for his eyeballs rolled till only the whites s

just beyond the willow patch. I peeled off my coat and spread it over the marred limbs, and Bruce held the water so that I could dip in my hand and sprinkle Rutter's face. After a lit

nk," he whis

hat. He came near going off again, but rallied, a

uh-get

u might say that the

did they do this to you? We'll make them sweat blood for

"We-me'n Hank Rowan-comin' from the North-made a stake on the Peace. They started it-at the Stone-yuh know-Writin'-Stone. Hank an' me-you'll find Hank in the cottonwoods

enched fists, and the feeble voic

ps trickle into his open mouth. He gasped a few times, then, gather

s cached-under the Stone-yuh know-Writin'-Stone. Three sacks. That's what-they wanted. You'l

t of the message went with the game old Dutchman across the big divide. We laid him down gent

as first

ry, tangled up with buried gold-dust, and being hunted like beasts for its possession. Old Hans was certainly in his right mind or he wouldn't have known us; and if he t

she's the sort of girl that isn't backward about hailing a friend. We know one thing-the men that killed Rutter are the ones that held us up, and got off w

erves are apt to get a little bit on edge. Things that wouldn't tax your fortitude in daylight look like the works of the devil when you have to face them in the black hours of the night. None of us are so far removed from savagery that a few grains of superstition don't lurk in our souls, all ready to bob up if the setting

job. Doubt it? Wasn't the dead man stretched in the shadow convincing proof of their capacity for pure devilishness? Read the history of those days along the line, and you'll turn some red pages. There were no

ut of the treacherous light and squatted in the edge of a quaking-asp grove where we couldn't be seen, an

, while we sat there undecided as to our next move. "Go o

ith a stack of blues. How in hell can I show my face in Benton while some other fellow is packing the money La Pere trusted me to bring back? If I can rustle horses I'll send these two boys on hom

will be their downfall if they undertake to spend them in this country-and if old Hans had it straight, they're not going to pull out with a measly ten thousand dollars. It's an ugly mess, and liable to be worse before it's cleaned up. If there is a stake lik

if Hank Rowan was really killed at Stony Crossing. If we find him there as Rutter said, you can gamble that trouble has camped in our dooryard for a lengthy stay. And it might be a good idea for you to give your men a gentle hint to keep their mouths clo

ave the cold-blooded brutes that put Hans Rutter's light out. But I don't sabe, Mac, why those old-timers should be mixed into a deal of this kind. Their cattle a

MacRae muttered. "I reckon we'd bett

to bring those red-handed marauders after us again, if they happened to be lurking in that canyon. Rutter's body we had no choice but to leave undisturbed by the bl